TSA: Protect airport screeners, don’t arm them

Following the first deadly shooting of a TSA employee in its 13-year history, the agency is rejecting calls to arm its workforce and is instead asking local and airport police to protect its security screeners.

A 26-page report, obtained by POLITICO before being released Wednesday, recommends a consistent law enforcement presence at both security checkpoints and ticket counters during peak travel times.

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That would address one lapse that played a role in the November attack in which prosecutors say 23-year-old Paul Ciancia opened fire with an assault rifle in Los Angeles International Airport’s Terminal 3, killing TSA officer Gerardo Hernandez and wounding two of his colleagues. Two airport police officers assigned to the terminal were reportedly on break at the time. (One bystander was also injured.)

Months earlier, LAX officials had decided to have officers patrol entire terminals instead of standing guard at checkpoints. The decision put them in line with most airports around the country: According to a chart included in Wednesday’s report, only 51 of the 447 airports that the TSA protects station law enforcement at security checkpoints. About a quarter of them — 118 — don’t have any police officers directly assigned to the airport.

“Following the incident at LAX last year, which shocked and saddened us all, I ordered a comprehensive review of policies and procedures at LAX and airports across the country,” TSA Administrator John Pistole said in a statement. “The report released today outlines the actions TSA took immediately following the shooting and new procedures to enhance the safety and security of TSA employees nationwide, especially those who work on the frontlines each and every day to protect the traveling public.”

The report drew praise from the nation’s airports, even if it recommends changes to many of their security plans. The TSA said it consulted with dozens of trade organizations and outside groups in developing the recommendations. White House national security staff participated in two meetings developing the plan.

“We appreciate TSA Administrator Pistole’s initiative to work collaboratively with ACI-NA to develop practical security enhancements to mitigate active shooter situations such as the tragic event at Los Angeles International Airport last November,” Airports Council International-North America President Kevin Burke said in a statement.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security transportation subcommittee, praised the report’s flexibility and said it’s still up in the air how exactly the agency should provide the additional security at checkpoints. He said setting minimum staffing levels or a maximum response time could be options.

“I think it’s good at this point that they haven’t been prescriptive,” he said. “I think that’s one of the bigger questions we need to look at.”

While the agency held more than 100 employee town halls after the LAX shooting, the agency rejected a pitch from the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA screeners, to create a new class of employee with the ability to carry a gun on duty.

“As to creating a new law enforcement cadre or deputizing [transportation security officers] to carry out law enforcement functions, the Administrator does not believe that adding more guns to the checkpoint by arming TSOs is the solution and [believes] that it raises jurisdictional and cost issues,” the report concludes. It adds that all but one interest group — presumably the union — thought armed agents were “inadvisable.”